6/26: Santa Fe National Forest has gone into Stage II fire restrictions.
This is not a closure. Gas canister / Jetboil-style stoves are still allowed, but only if they use liquid petroleum or LPG, can be turned on and off, and are used in an area cleared of overhead and surrounding flammable materials within 3 feet of the device.
Read the full notice for details.
This new order expands the prior Stage I restrictions, which included NO CAMPFIRES. Please read the full closure order. AGAIN: Absolutely no campfires in the woods right now. If you see someone with a campfire, respectfully ask them to put it out. There are other important points in the order; please read it.
These Stage II restrictions are active until September 30 unless rescinded.
If you come to the SF2T Trail, come as a steward.
Come to contribute what you can, not just to have your experience and move on.
We are not here just to pass through and take from this place, or any place. We are here to care for it: the lands and waters and wildlife, the communities connected to them, and the trail infrastructure that makes hikes possible.
Thru-hiking is not inherently extractive. But it can become extractive when hikers increase the wear and tear on all the things that make their journey possible without contributing to their care.
That is not said to make anyone feel bad or guilty. It is not necessarily to say, “don’t come here.”
It is said because hikers have responsibilities. We all do.
It is time for more hikers to shift from consuming to caring for the places, people, and systems that make their journeys possible. Many already do this.
The simplest way to make this shift is to start saying “thank you” more often.
Start saying it when and how you might not have before. Like when you get water. To the ground you slept on, or the trees you hung your hammock from. To the breeze that cools you, and the sun that warms you.
Just that. Just that tiny little thing.
What great things come from small beginnings.
The Santa Fe to Taos Trail is undergoing a massive increase in traffic. We will see 10x as many hikers as last year – more hikers than do the Colorado Trail every year, and two to three times as many hikers as do the Continental Divide Trail every year.
The Santa Fe to Taos Trail goes from the Santa Fe Plaza to Taos Plaza over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico. It is 132 miles long, spans five counties – Santa Fe, San Miguel, Mora, Rio Arriba, and Taos – and crosses the Santa Fe National Forest, The Pecos Wilderness, and Carson National Forest. The full route has 35,000 feet of cumulative ascent and descent, as both plazas are at 7,000 feet elevation.
The route is over a decade in the making, scouted and refined by Pam Neely beginning around 2014, and then first completed as a thru-hike in 2018. It has been refined several times to optimize safety and access to water. It is still being refined and expanded.
UPCOMING EVENT
Buffalo Thunder Outdoor Expo
TIME: Saturday, June 27 (9:00 AM–5:00 PM) & Sunday, June 28 (9:00 AM–2:00 PM)
LOCATION: Hilton Santa Fe Buffalo Thunder, 20 Buffalo Thunder Trail, Santa Fe, NM. Directions here.
COST: Free admission and parking
Get SF2T merch, get your questions about the Santa Fe to Taos Trail answered, meet other hikers, learn about SF2T programs and volunteer opportunities, and more.
Panchuela Campground is closed from May 4 to September 30th
Jack’s Creek Campground and NM 63 north of Cowles are also closed until September 30th.
Santa Fe National Forest is in Stage 2 Fire Restrictions until September 30 unless rescinded.
Carson National Forest is in Stage 1 Fire Restrictions until September 30 unless rescinded.
Total registered hikers (as of June 19, 2026)
- 207 registered groups
- 404 registered people
- Average group size: 1.95 people
New Mexico hikers (June 19, 2026 data here and below)
- 65 groups
- 126 registered people
- 32.0% of groups
- 31.8% of people
Out-of-state U.S. hikers
- 138 groups
- 270 registered people
- 68.0% of groups
- 68.2% of people
Top states after New Mexico by groups
- Texas: 33 groups (16.3% of groups), 56 people (14.1% of people)
- Colorado: 30 groups (14.8% of groups), 54 people (13.6% of people)
- Arizona: 16 groups (7.9% of groups), 41 people (10.4% of people)
- California: 15 groups (7.4% of groups), 31 people (7.8% of people)
International hikers
- Australia: 4 people
- Mexico: 2 people
- Netherlands: 1 person
Elevation profile of the 2026 route of the Santa Fe to Taos Trail
Maps and route
See the route page and individual section pages for details on the route and turn-by-turn directions for the route. (6/22/26: Route page is old info and needs an update)
Presentation at the Los Alamos Mountaineers monthly meeting at the Los Alamos Nature Center Planetarium, Tuesday, October 28th
Huge thanks to the Mountaineers and the Nature Center for this opportunity.
Plaza to Plaza in 52 photographs
Each photograph is from one of the 50 subsections that make up the route.
